


The Most Important Things

by bluemermaid



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Curtain Fic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Post-Canon, Save the Bae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 18:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7399729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemermaid/pseuds/bluemermaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max and Chloe try to live again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Most Important Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [prosodiical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/gifts).



"No...Chloe...."

Max is murmuring in her sleep again, her body twitching as her face contorts in agony. Chloe has been woken by this sort of thing before; hardly a night goes by without Max having her nightmares.

"Hey," Chloe whispers, nudging Max gently. She curls in around her, wrapping an arm over Max's trembling body, and holds on tight as Max spasms back into reality, gasping and shoving before she realizes who is holding her.

"Chloe," she cries, burrowing in, slipping her arm beneath Chloe's. "I thought you were gone."

"I'm not going anywhere, Max," Chloe replies quietly, swallowing her thoughts down, squashing her emotions as she focuses on Max. It's more important to comfort Max right now. Chloe's used to not having any comfort for herself.

**

It isn't that she's resentful, because that would just be all kinds of fucked up. Chloe's not the kind of person who's ever wished death upon herself; she fights against everything the world throws at her, gives the middle finger to society and laughs in the face of conflict. But still. Sometimes she wonders what would have happened if she'd been able to convince Max to time jump that one last time.

When they're happy it's harder. When they're driving down a freeway with their favorite song blaring on the truck radio, when Max is softly singing along and Chloe's just grinning like an idiot as she struggles to pay attention to the road, struggles not to just stare at Max being happy like it's the greatest miracle on earth, it's harder to imagine what could have been. Somewhere, on some alternate axis, Chloe should be dead. Chloe should be dead, and Arcadia Bay should be a thriving little seaside community, with all sorts of locals and students living their lives as though nothing out of the ordinary had ever occurred there. Joyce should be living there.

Chloe misses her mother. They had their difficulties, especially after David entered the picture, but Joyce was always still _Mom_. Chloe would never say it out loud, however. She can't hurt Max that way. Max blames herself for everything and Chloe tries her best to overcome that, to hold Max in her arms and tell her that it's okay, that she's not a killer. Because she isn't. But they still feel the guilt.

Max isn't a killer but she sat and watched the world die; Chloe isn't suicidal but she sometimes wishes she'd talked Max into letting her die instead.

**

They have bad days.

Huddling up in another new motel room, curled under the blankets with their limbs intertwined, staring into space as they let their feelings wash over them. Chloe scowls but on the inside she is terrified, because they have no concrete plan for their lives and how are they ever going to properly heal from the massive fucking wave of chaos they've been through?

Max shivers, and the tears come again, soaking into Chloe's shoulder, into her skin. Chloe leans over and kisses the tears away. "Hey, it's okay," she whispers, willing them both to believe it. "We're superheroes, Max. We'll conquer the world."

"I never wanted to be a superhero," Max replies. "I just wanted to be with you."

"Well, I'm here, so get used to it. We went through hell to be together, and it's gonna stay that way. You're not getting rid of me."

"Never," Max breathes, like making a promise, though it's one she already made a long time ago and can't back away from now even if she wanted to.

**

But they have good days too.

"Hey, Max, how about this one?" Chloe holds up a curtain that's covered in the most hideous fucking flowers she's ever seen. "Very boho chic, don't you think?"

Max laughs and shakes her head. "Come on, Chloe, take this seriously. We're gonna have these curtains for the rest of our lives."

Chloe raises an eyebrow. "Oh, are we? I wasn't aware the curtain store was disappearing the second we left it."

Max blushes and grabs her arm. "I only meant...I want something nice."

"And we'll have it. Come on, nerd, come look at these ones. There's this rocking blue one that would totally match my hair."

They end up pulling most of the curtains off the shelves, giggling as they debate print over solid, living room versus kitchen, modern versus "Mom of the Year 1958." Chloe pulls a curtain over Max's head and kisses her, right there in the middle of the store, not caring who might see. It feels good to kiss Max when she's happy, when her tears aren't streaked between them. 

Later, they celebrate finally getting their own apartment by putting the curtains up in a fog of loud music and smoke from the end of Chloe's cigarettes. She even gets Max to take a hit or two, and they end up dancing in their underwear in the middle of the empty living room.

"Thanks," Max says, when they've collapsed onto the bare mattress in the bedroom, the only piece of furniture in the apartment.

"For my fantastic curtaining skills? You're welcome," Chloe replies, slinging an arm over Max's stomach.

"No," Max says, sitting up and staring at Chloe with her big, soulful eyes, eyes that are always full of some deep emotion, like she's got the whole world there inside of her head. "I mean, thanks. For what you did. I...I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost you."

"Don't get all melancholy on me now, Max, I was feeling so chill." Chloe sighs and sits up too, taking Max's hands in hers. "I was trying to do what was right, surprise, surprise. Sacrifice myself for the greater good or some shit. You're the one who got all noble about our friendship and refused to do it."

"You're the most important thing, Chloe," Max tells her. "No matter how guilty I feel about Arcadia. You came first. I fucked up so many things in my life, even before I got my powers. I left you. I ignored you for years. And then I realized how much I needed to make up for that."

"You did. By leaps and bounds, kid. You're the best friend I've ever had. And I could never have loved anyone as much as you."

Which is true. As much as Chloe loved and admired Rachel when they were together, they had been nothing more than very close friends, two girls finding comraderie under shitty life circumstances. Max Caulfield was the real deal. With Max, Chloe felt more than comraderie, more than friendship, more than support. With Max she felt alive. And so it was only fitting, really, that Max was the one who had given life to her, by literally saving her ass from death on more than one occasion.

"I meant it when I said you were a superhero, Max. And it wasn't just about the time powers. It sounds sappy as shit but you saved my life, and you're my hero."

Max gives her this crooked little smile, like she's embarrassed, and Chloe laughs and kisses her, enfolds her in a bear hug and growls softly against her ear. "No more nightmares, Caulfield. You and me against the world, remember? Love beating darkness and all that."

"Whatever you say, Chloe." But Max looks more at peace than she ever has as she drifts off into sleep, her little smile fixed into place as she snuggles up against Chloe.

**

The bad doesn't end, of course, because life isn't perfect and things aren't always sunshine and butterflies. But as Max and Chloe take solace in one another, laughing at curtains and dancing in the dark, exploring new places and settling into new routines, they find that the good starts to slowly outweigh the bad.

They've made some mistakes and been through some seriously fucked up shit, but it's all worth it for quiet nights lying beside one another on a bare mattress, fingers intertwined as their whispers curl up into one another, as they lull themselves to sleep. And if the nightmares come, well, Chloe's prepared for them. Comforting Max is the most important thing. She won't let any lingering guilts ruin that.


End file.
